John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

John's recent articles

VIJAY PRASHAD. The knife in Irans back: Trump opens door to chaos.

On Tuesday night, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went on television to talk about the reinstatement of sanctions by the United States against his country. He prepared the country for more privations as a result of the sanctions. Responding to US President Donald Trumps offer of a meeting, Rouhani said pointedly, If you stab someone with a knife and then say you want to talk, the first thing you have to do is to remove the knife.

MARC HUDSON. The Nationals have changed their leader but kept the same climate story (The Conversation 28 February 2018)

After Barnaby Joyces demise as Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader, and his replacement by Michael McCormack, we might wonder what the junior Coalition partners leadership change means for Australias climate policy.

WAYNE McMILLAN. Are Millennials Thinking Seriously about Socialism?

A recent report from the Australian conservative, right wing think tankThe Centre for Independent Studies, 1. reckons that Australian millennials are lurching towards Socialism. In this report millennials dont mention what they think about Socialism, or what shape or form it should take and how it could be implemented. I guess they are feeling that any alternative to Capitalism that promises a glimmer of social, economic and ecological hope is worth a go.

JOSEPH E STIGLITZ. The US is at Risk of Losing a Trade War with China.

The best outcome of President Donald Trumps narrow focus on the US trade deficit with China would be improvement in the bilateral balance, matched by an increase of an equal amount in the deficit with some other country (or countries). In fact, significantly reducing the bilateral trade deficit will prove difficult.

JENNIFER DOGETT AND P & I CONTRIBUTIONS. -An important series on drug law reform (Croakey)

Drug law reform is an issue that has been on the political agenda for decades, with varying degrees of urgency. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence for law reform and the sustained efforts of advocates from a range of sectors, most of the political and legislative changes required to reduce the harms associated with illicit drug use have not been achieved.

HYLDA ROLFE. Whats in a name? The threat to our National Parks

For three years now, Sydney-based company Gap Bluff Hospitality Pty Ltd (GBH) has been revising an offer it made to NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) under which the company would assume a large share of the burden of repair and maintenance of former Defence and other buildings in the Gap Bluff and Green Point sectors of Sydney Harbour National Park at Watsons Bay NSW. While the financial terms of the offer were not made public, the deal envisaged the adaptation and use by GBH of several buildings in the National Park as an integrated event/function complex. The mountain...

CHRISTIANE BARRO. Ninety years on, no justice for Australias last Aboriginal massacre.

Last Tuesday marked 90 yearssince the lastrecorded massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia.

DEREK ABBOTT. Time to play to the ALPs strengths

The outcome of the super Saturday by-elections have settled the question of Bill Shortens leadership at least until after the next general election. Malcolm Turnbulls leadership also seems secure, if for no other reason than the lack of plausible alternatives. Both are unpopular and the by-elections (and polls) suggest that the electorate is sick of the focus on the leadership challenges and three word slogans masquerading as policy.

DOUG TAYLOR. Drug Reform Series. Canada is set to become only the second country in the world to legalise marijuana.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced the move to legalise marijuana earlier this year. He said the move would take the market share away from organised crime and protect the countrys youth.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

WILLIAM FINNEGAN. California Burning.

On the northwestern edge of Los Angeles, where I grew up, the wildfires came in late summer. We lived in a new subdivision, and behind our house were the hills, golden and parched. We would hose down the wood-shingled roof as fire crews bivouacked in our street. Our neighborhood never burned, but others did. In the Bel Air fire of 1961, nearly five hundred homes burned, including those of Burt Lancaster and Zsa Zsa Gabor. We were all living in the wildland-urban interface, as it is now called. More subdivisions were built, farther out, and for my family the wildfire...

Q&A with Michael Dillon: History and Indigenous Policy

In this Q&A, former senior bureaucrat Michael Dillon offers some very thoughtful insights into the last several decades of Indigenous policy-making and the role of historical knowledge in the policy process.

PETER BAUME. Drug Reform series- Drug policy: None so blind

Current drug policy is based on the unrealistic belief that we can stamp out possession and use of illicit drugs, much like prohibition of alcohol in 1920s America. It also fails to account for the harm caused by our strictly punitive policy approach.

TONY TRIMINGHAM. Drug Reform Series-Dont punish drug users. Help them instead.

This is mostly a personal story, about my son Damien, who died from heroin use in 1997, at the age of 23. I feel sure that his death could have been avoided if we had at the time an approach to drug use that was based on harm prevention rather than punishment.

RICHARD WOOLCOTT. An Updated Approach to Australias Engagement in the Asia and the South West Pacific.

The Australian Government and the Opposition must now base policy on three realities, namely that; (a) Trump is essentially a unilateralist, despite the contradictory comments he often makes; (b) United States involvement in Asia and the South West Pacific will be less active during Trumps Presidency; and that (c) Chinas role in the Asia and the South West Pacific will be much more active in the decades ahead, including its One Belt, One Road project.

JOHN MENADUE. National Parks and the new squatters

The new squatters on public land are being given a leg-up, as they were in the 19th Century, to seize and occupy public land. By deliberately underfunding National Parks developer-friendly governments are putting commercial interests ahead of the public interest. Our early wealthy and powerful squatters forced indigenous people off the land they had occupied for tens of thousands of years. The new squatters are taking over more and more of our public land national parks, botanic gardens and public reserves. There is currently an attempt by a latter-day squatter, aka developer Gap Bluff Hospitality Pty...

NICK BISLEY. Is there a problem with the Quad?

At the sidelines of the 2017 East Asia Summit (EAS) in Manila, senior officials from Australia, India, Japan and the United States respective foreign ministries met under the aegis of the Australia-India-Japan- United States consultations on the Indo-Pacific. This was followed by a stage-managed meeting of the four countries naval chiefs at the Raisina Dialogue, a Track 1.5 process in India. The 2007 still-born Quadrilateral Security Initiative was back.

Catholic bishops opposition to Donald Trump emboldens church liberals.

They may be disappointed.

WILLIAM PESEK. Toyota driving into a fierce economic storm.

What GM used to be to America, Toyota is to Japan: a weathervane for macro trends. On Friday, the carmaker admitted it is downhill from now.

JEFFREY SACHS. Trump is robbing America of what makes it great (Washington Post)

American prosperity since World War II has been built upon science and technology breakthroughs spurred by a powerful innovation system linking the federal government, business, academia and venture capital. U.S. innovation policy has been successfully emulated in Europe and Asia, most recently by China. President Trumps trade war against China aims to slow Chinas technology ascent but is misguided and doomed to fail; instead, American prosperity should be assured by doing what America does best: innovating at home and trading with the rest of the world.

HELEN TYRRELL. Drug Reform series-Grasping the nettle: Prisons, drug use and the law

Every day people are imprisoned for drug-related crimes in line with tough on drugs policies. Its time to face the futility and unsustainability of this approach to drug use.

KEITH HAMBURGER. Drug Reform series punishment alone is not the answer.

Australian prisons are severely overcrowded. Much crime is drug related. Some 75% of prisoners have a substance abuse problem. The majority of prisoners are not rehabilitated by their prison experience as evidenced by high recidivism rates, particularly for First Nation people. A holistic, whole of community response is required founded in restorative justice and justice reinvestment.

GINO VUMBACA. Drug Reform series-At last, a government sanctioned pill testing program

We are finally seeing in Australia the first signs of a recognition by government of the important public health benefits of sanctioned pill testing programs. Law enforcement alone will never overcome the problems that can arise from drug use. Much like needle and syringe programs, pill testing is a real-world response which is evidence based and rightly treats harm reduction as one of the primary objectives of drug policy.

JOHN MENADUE. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation and crony capitalism

Just imagine if a Labor prime minister handed out a $444 million grant to a small reef charity without any due process. The Murdoch media would be even more apoplectic than usual. There is a lack of transparency and probity in this case. The Chairmans Panel for this reef charity is full of mates and cronies.

TONY KEVIN. Australian foreign policy - Riding two horses.

Australian foreign policy at present seems to be trying to ride two horses at once: an inherently dangerous pursuit, requiring the skills of a trained and superbly fit circus acrobat. Are we really up to this, or should we be pursuing safer courses, with our feet more firmly planted on the ground?

MICHAEL HART. Drug Reform Series Drub Policy-an addiction to failure

A careful assessment of our policy towards currently illegal drugs and our struggle with the trade in these drugs brings forth a somber but frank conclusion about the war on drugs. It should stop.

RALPH SECCOMBE. Drug Reform series-Production of illicit drugs - the balloon effect

Policy on illicit drugs should be developed on the basis that supply can never be cut off. Production is like a balloon: squeeze it in one place, but it will only bulge out elsewhere. This applies all the way to the consumer. There is no pricking this balloon under the present prohibition regime. While we naturally focus on harm suffered in Australia, we should not lose sight of the harm which international policies cause in countries from which we source the illicit drugs consumed here.

ALAN KOHLER. Another fine energy shambles (The Australian, 07/08/18)

Years of cat-herding by those who actually know and care about Australias electricity market will come to fruition this week with the meeting of COAG energy ministers to discuss the National Energy Guarantee, and possibly make a decision about it. Or maybe not.

LESLEY HUGHES. Cognitive Dissonance in the Big Dry

Climate change is worsening the drought now affecting huge swathes of the continent, bringing gut-wrenching misery for farmers and the communities they support. And what have some of the parliamentary representatives of those regions been up to? They have been trying to convince the Japanese to invest in more coal-fired power generation in Australia.

BILL BUSH. Drug Reform series- High drug incarceration harms manifest and benefits hard to perceive

At 160 prisoners per 100,000 of population, Australias prison rate in 2016 was more than 3 times the rate of the 1940s and 1950s. The steep increase correlates with an increasingly repressive drug policy and the closure of mental health institutions.

MICK PALMER. Drug Reform series-The Blind Eye of History: from policing alcohol prohibition to policing drug prohibition

Australia has some unhappy laws which result in people using illicit drugs being severely punished. When thinking about this, one should recall laws used half a century ago to criminalise Aboriginal people who drank alcohol.

RICHARD FLANAGAN. The world is being undone before us. If we do not reimagine Australia, we will be undone too

In the full transcript of his speech to the Garma festival, the author says the country can make itself stronger by saying yes to the Uluru statement

SALIM MAZOUZ, FRANK JOTZO, HUGH SADDLER. Could the NEG bring down power prices? Its hard to be confident that it will.

The final design document for the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), released this week, contains a range of claims about the policys ability to drive down both greenhouse emissions and electricity prices. But still there is precious little detail on how exactly these assertions are backed up.

MARION McCONNELL. Drug Reform series-The long road to drug law reform

What should I tell people about your sons death, asked our Minister. He was there to discuss arrangements for our sons funeral. In my overwhelming grief it hadnt crossed my mind, but now it immediately struck me. Our son had died from a heroin overdose. He is now tainted with shame. We, his mum and dad will also be made to feel the shame. Not something I ever thought my family would have to cope with. What should we do? How should we handle this? I need not have stressed because in an instant my husband replied in a sure...

GEOFF GALLOP. Drug Reform series-The politics of drug decriminalisation

Policies around drug decriminalisation should be evidence based, recognise the need for a nuanced rather than fundamentalist approach and take account of the advances made in the field of harm reduction, not just law enforcement. Reform measures should be premised on a mix of rights, health and community safety principles and reflect the views of a broad cross-section of society.

ANN SYMONDS. Drug Reform series -The politics of social change

The War on Drugs has failed. Not only has it failed to stem the use of illicit drugs but it has also given rise to a host of other issues, including increased crime and corruption and a higher rate of disease and death from the use of such drugs. Reform is long overdue, including a review of alternatives to blunt prohibition. We can learn a lot from overseas experience.

BERNARD MOYLAN. Scandals In The Church.

I am not attempting to whitewash the Church. It must take its proper responsibility for any abuse of power, learn something from its self-abasement and work even harder to implement gospel values wherever they are most needed. It may take quite some time to emerge from the present morass but it is still a task worth pursuing. The Church must still follow, even when bruised and demoralised, Christ's injunction to work towards bringing about the kingdom of God on earth, however impossible it looks from where we now stand.

MICHAEL JENSON. Nigerian farmers are under attack, so why don't we hear about it?

We've heard a lot lately about white South African farmers being killed in farm murders. But another group of African farmers are being killed in far greater numbers and we've barely heard a whimper.

JUDY HEMMING. The US Marines in Darwin according to precedent: neither in the national, nor the local interest.

Australian Defence Policy, in lockstep with the US as regards managing the rise of China, embraces the deployment of US Marine to Darwin as being consistent with the national interest. Where the social fabric of the Northern Territory is concerned, however, the potential for Darwin to be just another locale to be trashed by the US military has not been sufficiently investigated.

LYNDSAY CONNORS. The schools funding saga wends on its way and everything changes while everything stays the same.

The recent by-elections suggest that when it comes to the politics of schools funding, everything stays the same while everything changes.

GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND

A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts covered in other media.

CLIMATE COUNCIL. Drought and climate change. The elephant in the room we refuse to talk about.

The Climate Council in it's Fact Sheet, Climate Change and drought June 2018 reports on how climate change is contributing to droughts. A key finding is that 'climate change is likely making drought conditions in southwest and southeastern Australia worse'. Yet the media,politicians and farmer organisations consistently fail to acknowledge the link between climate change and weather.

BREXIT SIMPLIFIED

ANDREW STARK. Oh, Canada! (New York Review of Books 19.07.18)

A cover of The Economist in 2003 featured a moosethat universally recognized symbol of Canadawearing sunglasses. Inside, the magazine extolled Canadas new sophistication: its openness, even then, to legalizing gay marriage and decriminalizing marijuana; its cosmopolitan cities (Toronto would soon become the most diverse metropolis in the world, with over half of its residents foreign-born); and its growing international cultural clout. (Perhaps surprisingly Australians and Canadians have very little contact or knowledge of each other..John Menadue)

NICHOLAS GRUEN on Dunera Lives

I have reached a new stage in my life. It is the book-launching stage, first identified in Egyptian writings where it was called the scroll rolling stage of life, though we only know this second hand from Phoenician sources. At least judging from my experience, it comes upon one quite suddenly. I hadn't launched any books until this May and nowI've launched two. Naturally, at my stage of life, I would be a fool not to make myself available foryour next book launch.

SCOTT BURCHILL. Syria - a few definitive outcomes.

As the war in Syria grinds towards some kind of resolution, it is possible to say a few definitive things about what is going on in the region and the role of external players.

VINCENT CHEOK. If spirituality or religion has a bearing on geopolitics then Australia needs to understand what moves the spirit and soul of India and China for our Asian neighbours will be the new global superpowers in a new multipolar multilateral world.

This post is prompted by the release of the final draft of the National Register of Indian Citizens in Assam Province on 30/7/18. This verification exercise was made in accordance with the terms of the Assam Accord of 1985. Not surprisingly more than 4 million did not qualify as they could not prove that they or their ancestors entered the country before midnight on March 24, 1971 the eve of the Bangladesh War. Obviously, most of these are Muslim Bengalis, who or whose ancestors presumably fled overpopulated Bangladesh.

NY TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD. A New Batsman for Pakistan.

Imran Khan, cricket-star-turned-politician, promises a new path for Pakistan. But his ties to the military, and his own at-times erratic behaviour, may stand in the way.

AMITENDU PALIT. Does Australia need a lesson in Indian economic strategy?

The recently releasedIndian Economic Strategy to 2035report outlines three core objectives for improving the AustraliaIndia economic relationship. These include making India one of Australias top three export markets by 2035, making India the third-largest Asian recipient of Australian foreign direct investment by the same year andbringing Indiainto the inner circle of Australias strategic partnerships and with people-to-people ties as close as any in Asia.Recommendations for achieving these objectives are driven largely by the choice of states and sectors, 10 each respectively, that the report considers top priority for Australia.

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